Farms For Food

​​Our Purpose

• Advocacy to assist rural people to understand the industrialisation process of agricultural land in Victoria.

• To provide information and resources to help farmers to engage with the process of advocating for their local community.

• To empower rural people with tools to advocate for themselves.

• To create an advocacy group where people can seek support and advice from other farming communities.

• To ultimately work towards legislation change regarding state planning policies.

• To provide reasoned and balanced information from reliable sources.

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Our Values

• We value protecting our state's food security, the health of our soil and our waterways.

• We value the preservation of prime agricultural land. 

• We value the importance of supporting small rural communities to thrive and continue the practice of responsible and sustainable agriculture into the future.

• We value integrity and transparency, and we are apolitical.

• We value compassion and actively want to cultivate a supportive environment where we seek to understand all points of view. 

Our Story

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We are an advocacy group from a small rural town in the heart of the Victorian wheatbelt. In recent years the need to meet the issues of climate change has placed pressure on rural communities on many different fronts.

 

The agricultural industry has changed and evolved over time to improve farming practices that respect the soil, the environment and our waterways. Climate conditions have led to innovation in agriculture as we seek to combat extreme weather events and the highs and lows of each season. The objective of responsible farming is to yield as much food as we can with the least detrimental impact on the environment. It is in our best interest to care and respect the land that we work on. It is, after all, our home.

 

As our country seeks to decrease our carbon emissions and move towards net-zero targets, farmers in prime agricultural land, our food bowls, have been approached by companies that want to use these areas to harness renewable energy and mine for rare earth minerals.

 

As people that work the land, we are concerned about climate change and how that affects our future too. We believe that there is a place for diversifying our energy production away from fossil fuels. What concerns us is the speed in which changes are happening, without genuine community consultation and long-term planning.

 

​We are concerned about the negative environmental and social effects of living and farming next to mining, energy parks and large transmission lines. In many instances farmers feel that changes are happening to them and that the weight of power lies with big corporations and government legislation. We want to empower rural people to understand the issues affecting them and how they can make more informed decisions.

 

We are proud to say that where we live is farmland and we want to keep farms for food. 

 

We do not claim to be experts. We are a community group that has banded together and volunteered our time to help people in other communities make informed choices. We are farmers, business owners, teachers and parents who in our ‘spare time’ want to make sure that we value what we have before it’s gone.

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